An audit is an examination of a company’s financial statements as prepared by the directors of the company. The audit is carried out by a qualified auditor who reports an opinion to the members as to whether the financial statements give a true and fair view of the company’s finances and agree with its accounting records.  Please refer to ODCE Information Booklet and Quick Guide on Auditors.

Audit exemption is the removal of the need for certain companies to have their financial statements examined and reported on by a statutory auditor.

Small private limited companies and some CLG's can be exempted from the requirement to have their statutory financial statements audited if they meet two of the following conditions:  - a turnover of less than €8.8m, - a balance sheet total less than €4.4m, - an average number of employees of 50 or less.  In addition, the company must have filed its annual return for both the current year and the previous year on time with the Registrar of Companies.

Audit exemption is also available to a group of companies that qualify to be treated as a "small group" (Section 356 Companies Act 2014).

Yes. Any member or members of a company holding not less than 10% of the voting rights in the company may serve notice in writing on the company stating that they do not wish the company to avail of the audit exemption (Section 334 of the Companies Act).

In the case of a company limited by guarantee (CLG) - any member of a company may serve notice in writing on the company stating that they do not wish the company to avail of audit exemption in a specified financial year  - Section 1218 Companies Act.

 

 

An auditor (defined as a statutory auditor under the Companies Act) is an independent professional person who is qualified to perform an audit of a company’s financial statement.

A list of auditors and audit firms entitled to act as an auditor of Irish registered companies is available on this link to: Companies Registration Office (CRO).

The directors of a new company usually appoint its first auditor and thereafter the members appoint or reappoint the auditor at each AGM (Section 382 Companies Act).